EP3907716B1

EP3907716B1 - Smart device

Info

Publication number: EP3907716B1
Application number: EP21171976.0A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Giuseppe Conti
Original assignee: Wita Srl
Current assignee: Wita Srl
Priority date: 2020-05-07
Filing date: 2021-05-04
Publication date: 2023-11-08
Anticipated expiration: 2041-05-04
Also published as: EP3907716A1; EP3907716C0

Description

The present invention relates to a smart device that can be worn by a user.
Europe, but in general most advanced countries, has an extremely elderly average population.
This problem, if not properly tackled, will soon render the health systems of these countries, especially activities relating to the care and hospitalization of the elderly, financially and operationally unsustainable.
However, if it were possible to intervene in and optimize procedures and processes for diagnosis and prevention of diseases typical of the elderly, new opportunities could be opened up for the "third age economy", which is already expanding significantly in some realms.
It is evident that if the system successfully anticipates and accurately diagnoses recurring problems, especially of the elderly population, this would increase the general wellness of people, while reducing healthcare costs and also enabling older people to make a positive contribution to the creation of wealth (in terms for example of services to be carried out) in the broad sense.
As previously mentioned, we live in a society that is rapidly aging and, according to official figures, the age distribution of the population, for example in Europe, will change radically in the coming decades.
It is estimated in fact that the average age will increase by approximately 7.5 years by 2060, going from 40.4 years of age in 2008 to 47.9 years of age in 2060, with an additional increase in average life expectancy.
According to Eurostat (June 2016), as long ago as the first of January 2015, 18.9% of the population of the European Union was over 65 years old with a growth of 2.3% over the previous 10 years; in addition, it is expected that the number of people of over 80 years of age will triple, going from 23.7 million to 62.4 million.
Today there is a wide range of solutions on the market for monitoring the movements and activities not only of the elderly, for example falls or episodes of night-time wandering, but also of persons who work in high risk environments, in order to detect conditions of possible danger, to name just a few.
These solutions use devices that range from activity-monitoring bracelets (for example Fitbits or the like) to more sophisticated wireless devices that use 3D detection technologies.
However, while there is a large body of scientific literature (Konstantinidis, E. I., Billis, A. S., Dupre, R., Fernández Montenegro, J. M., Conti, G., Argyriou, V., & Bamidis, P. D. (2017). IoT of active and healthy ageing: cases from indoor location analytics in the wild. Health and Technology, 7(1), 41-49) and the market offers a fairly wide range of devices for monitoring the elderly in enclosed environments, the same cannot be said for outdoor environments, i.e. when the elderly are located outside their home or outside protected infrastructure, such as care homes.
The need is not just to be able to accurately detect a variety of critical conditions (for example a fall or when a person, for example affected by Alzheimer's disease, leaves his/her home with a high risk of getting lost) but also to predict the onset of diseases before they manifest themselves, for example the appearance of early onset symptoms typical of Alzheimer's disease by analyzing the behavior of the elderly while they walk (F. Prince, H. Corriveau, R. Hébert, and D. A. Winter, "Gait in the elderly," Gait and Posture, vol. 5, no. 2. pp. 128-135, 1997).
In effect, when dealing with situations outdoors, the solutions available on the market today use, for the most part, a GNSS sensor (GNSS is an acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System, a global satellite system for terrestrial, maritime or aerial geolocation and navigation that uses a network of artificial satellites in orbit and pseudolites). These devices typically have a precision in the order of a few meters, and are used to identify the position of persons and send an alert if they move outside an area of interest. Currently there is however no effective solution that is capable of providing an analysis, in an outdoor environment, of the potential risk based on an analysis of how the subject walks.
Nowadays, with GNSS technologies it is possible to achieve, among other things, decimeter and centimeter levels of precision (F. Fratarcangeli, G. Savastano, M. C. D'Achille, A. Mazzoni, M. Crespi, F. Riguzzi, R. Devoti and G. Pietrantonio (2018), VADASE Reliability and Accuracy of Real-Time Displacement Estimation: Application to the Central Italy 2016 Earthquakes. Remote Sensing).
As already mentioned, when it is necessary to carry out monitoring outdoors, today there is no effective solution available on the market that goes beyond using GPS trackers (GPS is an acronym of Global Positioning System, a satellite navigation and positioning system that, using a dedicated network of artificial satellites in orbit, provides a mobile terminal or GPS receiver with information about its geographic coordinates), an accelerometer, and panic buttons.
Safety bracelets or similar technologies that make it possible for an elderly person to send an alarm by pressing a button have a number of drawbacks in that they do not function as a prevention tool, as they are not capable of detecting the onset of possible risks (for example via the detection of an anomalous gait).
In many cases, furthermore, such devices require the elderly person, in the event of an emergency, to press a button, but in many cases the person might not be capable of doing this, as he or she may have lost consciousness after falling, or owing to a panic attack during the emergency.
Gait analysis is a systematic examination of the manner in which a person walks, which can include analysis of speed, analysis of displacement of the center of gravity, the variation of the position of the limbs of the body and of the angles and times of muscular contraction.
In particular, gait analysis on the elderly concentrates on the determination of any changes that arise in their gait models and in the capacity to walk, as such variations can be indicators of the evolution of some diseases, such as for example Alzheimer's disease.
As previously mentioned, nowadays procedures are known and widely used for gait analysis (monitoring of human activity and gait analysis of persons) in enclosed environments, for example, among others, the "Timed Up and Go" test (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timed_Up_and_Go_test).
Such procedures have many limitations however, in that they effectively require the elderly, or the persons who are to be subjected to such analysis, to travel to a suitable location.
Furthermore, such analyses are influenced by the environment in which they are conducted, and therefore the movements of the subjects tested in enclosed and controlled environments do not always correspond to the movements that would be made under normal, i.e. non-controlled, conditions, and this determines a certain unreliability of the subsequent gait analysis.
Traditional GPS trackers and/or devices also have limitations in different areas of outdoor use, such as for example in situations where an extremely precise monitoring is required of solitary workers in high-risk environments, or in cases where sports practitioners want to control additional parameters over and above those normally monitored by GPS devices.
In this regard US20016/324442 and US2011/277206 are cited.
However, these documents disclose solutions wherein the geolocation module is constituted by a compact body that, in US2016/32442 , is for example associated with the body of the user but does not allow the possibility of carrying out extremely precise monitoring, especially with reference to the displacement, over time, non only of the subject as a whole, but also of the various parts of the body, with respect to each other.
US2011/277206 also teaches to position the device on the back, at a central point between the shoulders of the user.
Although it teaches to position the device on the back of the user, this solution also does not appreciably increase the precision either of the identification of the device or of the displacement, over time, of the various parts of the body of the user.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a smart device that can be worn by a user and which is capable of improving the known art in one or more of the above mentioned aspects.
Within this aim, an object of the invention is to make available a smart device that can be worn by a user and which is capable of aiding in effectively detecting anomalous or hazardous walking routes every time a user, and an elderly user in particular, is outside his or her home or outside a protected context.
Another object of the invention is to devise a smart device that can be worn by a user and which can also be used to track solitary workers and SAR (search and rescue) personnel, and to optimize the performance of the sports practitioners.
Another object of the invention is to provide a smart device that can be worn by a user that is highly reliable, easy to implement and of low cost.
This aim and these and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a smart device according to claim 1, optionally provided with one or more of the characteristics of the dependent claims.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the description of some preferred, but not exclusive, embodiments of the smart device according to the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the smart device according to the invention;
Figure 2 is an enlarged-scale view of a user of the smart device;
Figures 3 and 4 are respectively front elevation views of two embodiments of the monitoring device.

In the discussion of the present application, the term "gait" will be used to indicate the walking or running model of a user, while "gait analysis" is the study of human movement.
The term "wandering" is used to refer to a specific condition, typical of the elderly with cognitive deficit or Alzheimer's disease, which consists of irregular and repetitive paths that are potentially extremely hazardous and are considered the highest risk factor of falling.
With reference to the above figures, the smart device according to the invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 10, comprises a wearable basic element 11 designed to be worn by a user 200, characterized in that it comprises a monitoring device 20 provided with a first longitudinally extended portion which extends along a respective main axis of extension 101 and which comprises:

a geolocation module 21 for identifying the geographical position of the monitoring device 20 by way of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) 300,
at least one longitudinally-extended antenna 22 associated with the geolocation module 21 and arranged at least parallel to the main axis of extension 101,
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) 25 which comprises at least one accelerometer and a gyroscope,
an electronic control and actuation unit 23, at least one power supply battery 24, and a transceiver 26.

The monitoring device 20 is functionally connected to a processing device 30 configured to identify the position and the movement in space of at least one portion of the body of the user 200 as a function of the data acquired by the geolocation module 21 and by the inertial measurement unit 25.
The inertial measurement unit (IMU) 25 is further configured, in addition to measuring and supplementing the data relating to the movement of the user in three axes, also to ensure that the geolocation module 21 is switched off when the user 200 is not moving, so as to save power.
The monitoring device 20 is arranged, during use, along a substantially horizontal direction and has at least one first end portion and one second end portion 20a, 20b, which are arranged on the basic garment 11 substantially at the shoulders of the user 200.
Each one of the end portions 20a, 20b is arranged at a respective shoulder of the user 200.
Such arrangement of the monitoring device makes it possible:

to offer greater visibility to a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) 300;
to "spatially" optimize the antenna;
to prevent the user from accidentally removing it;
to optimize feedback, for example for sports/professional applications.

According to a possible embodiment, the processing device 30 is located remotely with respect to the monitoring device 20.
In this case, the processing device 30 and the monitoring device 20 are mutually connected by way of a telematic communications network.
In a solution of this type the processing device 30 can be accommodated in a remote server 400 which is connected, for example via the internet, to the monitoring device 20. In this case the processing device 30 and the monitoring device 20 are mutually connected by way of a long-range communications network, such as, for example, a 3-4-5G network, a LoRaWAN network or other network based on LPWAN technology.
Alternatively, the processing device 30 is arranged proximate to the monitoring device 20, because for example it is embedded in a smartphone 500, in a tablet computer or in a similar device in the possession of the user. In the latter case, the processing device 30 and the monitoring device 20 are mutually connected by way of a short-range telematic communications network, such as a wireless network (wireless LAN, Bluetooth).
According to an additional possible embodiment, shown schematically in Figure 4, the processing device 30 is supported by the monitoring device 20.
According to a particularly important aspect of the present invention, the antenna 22 comprises a frame-like structure that supports at least one battery 24.
The battery 24 can be of the compact type (as shown in Figure 3) or of the modular type (as shown in Figure 4) in which the battery portions (typically single cells) are arranged along the extension of the antenna 22 in order to allow the antenna to flex and to adapt to the shoulders of the user in order to ensure greater comfort of use.
Conveniently, the antenna 22 comprises a frame-like structure that supports the inertial measurement unit or units (IMU) 25.
According to a preferred practical embodiment, the monitoring device 20 is provided with first means for detachable coupling with second coupling means which are defined at the basic garment 11.
Conveniently, the battery 24 is of the type that can be recharged by induction.
It is possible for the monitoring device 20 to be provided with an LED module for feedback and, advantageously, with two vibrator modules at the end portions 20a and 20b which are configured to provide feedback to users 200, for example a triathlete in open water, as to the direction to follow in order to optimize the route.
The monitoring device 20 can likewise be provided with a covering in silicone material or the like, of the waterproof type in order to ensure a watertight seal (for example IP67 or higher).
On its surface that is intended to be directed outward, the monitoring device 20 can have a covering in reflective material in order to increase visibility at night or in poorly-lit areas.
It is also possible for the monitoring device 20 to be associated with covers made of a different material in order to be adaptable to the clothing of the user 200.
According to a further aspect, the monitoring device 20 comprises a microphone and/or a loudspeaker, functionally associated with a unidirectional or bidirectional communication device.
The smart device 10 can be used for the following purposes:

tracking solitary workers;
SAR (search and rescue) personnel;
sport (optimization of performance);
the elderly, in particular if a risk of falling emerges;
patients for whom it is necessary to verify balance and walking (for neurological or cognitive diseases, etc.) or rehabilitation status.

Use of the smart device 10, according to the invention, is the following.
The users 200 (for example the elderly) wear the smart device 10 fitted with the monitoring device 20.
The monitoring device 20 makes it possible, based on the data acquired from the geolocation module 21 and from the IMU 25, to conduct the gait analysis with consequent detection of emergent risk conditions such as, for example, abnormal paths, falls etc.), based on the development of existing algorithms which will be adapted to be executed on the proposed device and on its back-end services.
If the processing device 30 is located remotely with respect to the monitoring device 20, the transceiver 26 will regularly send the raw data received from the GNSS chipset (and not the aggregated geolocation data for example in NMEA format) and the raw data received from the IMU to a back-end service that will conduct additional checks at a macroscopic level in order to identify further hazard conditions (for example the user 200 is wandering or walking in a circle).
Each time a hazard condition is detected, both as a result of the gait and as a result of the analysis of movement, the service will send an alert to the associated caregiver, who receives it on his or her smartphone (together with the position of the user 200) by way of, for example, a dedicated application.
In the meantime, the monitoring device 20 emits an acoustic signal in order to alert the user 200 that he or she is in a possible risk situation (for example, asking the user to stop or to take a rest).
In this regard, the monitoring device 20 can have two different operating modes.
A first operating mode can be to keep the geolocation module 21 constantly in location mode: in this operating mode, the monitoring device 20 will estimate the position through the use of various different technologies.
A second, "IoT-based" operating mode can instead deactivate the geolocation module 21 in order to maximize the optimization of power.
In practice it has been found that the invention fully achieves the intended aim and objects.
The smart device according to the invention is therefore capable of enabling very precise gait analysis (locomotion analysis) based on PNT (positioning, navigation and time), so detecting possible hazard conditions (for example unstable walking model, the possibility that the user is wandering, the possibility that the user is falling) and as a consequence producing an alert (for example, an acoustic alarm or sending a signal to a monitoring party).
The invention thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, all the details may be substituted by other, technically equivalent elements, provided they fall under the scope of the appended claims.
In practice the materials employed, provided they are compatible with the specific use, and the contingent dimensions and shapes, may be any according to requirements and to the state of the art.

Claims

A smart device (10) comprising a basic garment (11) designed to be worn during use by a user (200), and a monitoring device (20) provided with at least one first longitudinally extended portion which extends along a respective main axis of extension (101) and has at least one first end portion (20a) and one second end portion (20b) and which comprises
- a geolocation module (21) for identifying the geographical position of said monitoring device (20) by way of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) (300),

- at least one longitudinally-extended antenna (22) associated with said geolocation module (21) and arranged at least parallel to said main axis of extension (101),

- an inertial measurement unit (25) which comprises at least one accelerometer and a gyroscope,

- an electronic control and actuation unit (23), at least one power supply battery (24), and a transceiver (26),

- said monitoring device (20) being functionally connected to a processing device (30) configured to identify the position and the movement in space of at least one portion of the body of said user (200) as a function of the data acquired by said geolocation module (21) and by said inertial measurement unit (25), said monitoring device (20) being arranged on said basic garment (11) and being arranged, during use, along a substantially horizontal direction, wherein said at least one first end portion (20a) and one second end portion (20b) are arranged on said basic garment (11) substantially at the shoulders of the user (200), each one of the end portions (20a, 20b) being arranged at a respective shoulder of the user (200).
The smart device (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that said processing device (30) is located remotely with respect to said monitoring device (20), said processing device (30) and said monitoring device (20) being mutually connected by way of a telematic communications network.
The smart device (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that said processing device (30) is located proximate to said monitoring device (20), said processing device (30) and said monitoring device (20) being mutually connected by way of a short-range telematic communications network.
The smart device (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that said processing device (30) is supported by said monitoring device (20).
The smart device (10) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one antenna (22) comprises a frame-like structure which supports said at least one battery (24).
The smart device (10) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one antenna (22) comprises a frame-like structure which supports said at least one inertial measurement unit (25).
The smart device (10) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said monitoring device (20) is provided with first means for detachable coupling with second coupling means which are defined at said basic garment (11).
The smart device (10) according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one battery (24) is of the type that can be recharged by induction.